NO GOOD DEED GOES PAST SECURITY

Repaying a kindness can get complicated when it
involves the vice president's family.

Connor Bifferato tried, and tried hard, but security
is so uptight these days, the milk of human kindness is
regarded as just another concoction to slip something
dangerous in. Forget about it.

Bifferato is a lawyer, the managing director of the
Bifferato firm. He comes from a family of lawyers. His
brother is a lawyer, his mother is a lawyer, and his
father is "Judge Biff" -- Vincent Bifferato Sr., much
revered within the Delaware bench and bar for the years
he spent on the Superior Court.

Connor Bifferato wanted to do something to comfort a
friend who once comforted him during a dire crisis, but
his friend is Beau Biden.

Not even Florence Nightingale reincarnated could have
made it to the bedside of an attorney general who has
the vice president for a father, not on the day he was
taken to Christiana Hospital with a mild stroke and the
family there, too.

This, even though Bifferato is a good Democrat.

Bifferato's motivation was rooted in events from the
fall of 1998, when he was a 31-year-old lawyer in his
early years of practice. One day he was working at his
law office after working out.

"I got an excruciatingly unbearable headache,"
Bifferato said.

It was so bad, he had another lawyer take him to an
emergency room. A 16-year-old messenger at the law firm
was the son of a neurologist and jawboned his reluctant
father into showing up. It was a good thing.

Bifferato had a brain aneurysm, life-threatening no
matter what. He could die if he did not have surgery, or
he could die if he did.

The Biden family knew about aneurysms. Joe Biden had
two that nearly killed him in 1988. Naturally the Biden
and Bifferato families were well-acquainted. Connor
Bifferato had even been a campaign volunteer for Joe
Biden, then in his fifth Senate term. The Bidens sprang
into action.

"Beau was one of the first people, with the exception
of my wife, who was with me," Bifferato said.

The episode turned into one of the more dramatic
moments in the memory of the state's legal circles.
Bifferato was stricken on the day marking the 75th
anniversary of women being admitted to the Delaware bar.
There was a huge celebratory dinner in Wilmington with
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Joe Biden squiring her
around.

Bifferato's predicament was announced at the dinner
to heartfelt gasps and groans. As soon as Joe Biden
could leave the event, he went to be with Bifferato.

Bifferato first was admitted to Christiana. The
medical staff got a look at his family of lawyers, and
he said the next thing he knew, he was shipped off to
Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia.

His surgery was on Joe Biden's 56th birthday. Biden
spent it with the Bifferato family, waiting.

Bifferato came out fine, and after about six months
of convalescence, he went on to a thriving law practice.
Beau Biden joined the Bifferato family firm in 2004 and
was there when he was elected attorney general in 2006.

This is the reason Bifferato headed for Christiana
last week when Beau Biden wound up there.

A state trooper was the first to stop him. Bifferato
explained. The trooper made some phone calls to state
security and Secret Service personnel to try to get
Bifferato in, but no luck.

Next Bifferato tried to make his case to the hospital
administration. He waited for an hour and a half,
eventually to be told thanks but no thanks. That was
that.

Bifferato was not surprised Biden was moved to Thomas
Jefferson. He figured the Bidens remembered the care he
had there. Beau Biden was attended by Robert Rosenwasser,
the same neurosurgeon Bifferato had. Rossenwasser sent
Biden home Tuesday for rest and recuperation.

"I'm sure that's why Beau went there. He was
certainly in the best hands," Bifferato said.

Maybe in that sense, Bifferato was able to help his
friend, a kindness repaid from afar, but what a shame.
Power isolates, and the security catering to power
isolates absolutely.